Whole Grain Waffles

Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food; Recipe 20

We have been collecting maple syrup.  Problem is, we don’t eat enough foods that call for maple syrup.  Not the biggest fans of pancakes (they are heavy after all), we thought we might prefer waffles.  But it’s been years since we have had waffles.  Do we even like them enough?  Not to mention we don’t have a waffle iron. In order to find out more about us and waffles, we borrowed an electric appliance and turned to Alice Waters for guidance.  Though pancakes sit heavy with us, there was no denying the success of Alice’s whole grain pancakes we made a few months ago.  Figuring she’d come through on the waffle front as well.  And she did.  The batter consisted of whole wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour (note: recipe calls for no all-purpose flour- I ran short on the pastry flour.  Using all-purpose will make the waffles more dense, but we did just fine adding some in), cornmeal, and rye flour, whole milk (should have been buttermilk), baking powder, eggs, and a whole stick of butter(!).  Luckily we pulled my father into this meal, so we didn’t consume that whole stick by ourselves.   So these were just as heavy as pancakes, but we liked them better.  The recipe was tasty and the waffles were both crisp and fluffy which was preferable.  Used Burton’s Maple Syrup from Indiana and saw a lot of possibilities for gourmet-ifying waffles with add-on ingredients.  Alice Waters came through again with a simple flavorful batter and I would certainly make waffles again with this recipe.  Please excuse the photo, which I forgot to take until I was more than halfway done eating my waffles. 

Linzer Hearts

Sarabeth's Bakery: Recipe 4

Made October 14th.  Making these linzer hearts was not difficult, but it did take time.  Sarabeth warns you of this.  First you have to toast and de-skin the hazelnuts, then turn them into flour, mixing with all the other dry ingredients. Then you make the dough and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  Next, you roll out the dough and stamp it with the cookie cutter, which of course, does not have to be a heart, but I had a heart shaped cutter and used it.   Once you have your baking sheets full of hearts, they need to go in the refrigerator again for another half hour.  Bake, cool completely, and make into sandwiches with jam in the middle.  Then, the real shocker, is that Sarabeth says to let the cookies stand for 8 hours, or overnight, before eating so that the jam can set.  Well, I didn’t want to wait that long and lo and behold, the jam ran out the sides of the cookie upon first bite.  So I thought she was right, you should wait.  But then when I had a cookie the next day the jam also got smooshed out of the cookie, albeit of a thicker consistency.  On day three, the jam escaping the cookie was less of an issue, though it still happened.   The cookies were a bit on the thick side, but that is only because my rolling pin skills are not that advanced yet.   These cookies are good, there is no question.  But are they good enough to warrant all that time?  Am I going to want to make these cookies again?  No, probably not.  I am more likely to try another recipe that might produce more impressive results.  These are easily the best Sarabeth cookies I have made so far, so I don’t want to knock them too much, but I would have liked dough that had a bit more zip to it brought about by spices I presume. As for the jam, I made a good choice with the relatively thick Mediterranean Organic Raspberry jam.  

Sage and Butternut Squash Risotto

Alice Waters: Chez Panisse Vegetables

Made this on October 7th and am running with my earlier Alice Waters theme, even though this is not from The Art of Simple Food.  This might have been more accurately named Butternut Squash Risotto with sage, but no matter, because it’s a winner.  It’s creamy, flavorful, and hits the spot.  I made it twice within 10 days.  It’s very simple to make as well and requires few ingredients- squash, sage, butter, broth, parmesan cheese, white wine, risotto rice.  This will become a regular autumn staple, I can see it now.  Thanks, Alice.

Update 2/15/13:  I make this about once every ten days now.  It is so easy that when I out of food and dinner ideas this is almost always something I can and do easily whip up (that's a one-hour whip-up, which is about how long I usually spend making dinner).  I almost never have sage in the house but I somehow always manage to have thyme and the thyme has been my go-to herb for this recipe.  I have no crispy fried thyme to replace the crispy fried sage that sits atop the risotto (see photo), but no matter, it's tasty anyway.  Just put in the amount of thyme that seems right to you.  I put in about a tablespoon or so during different stages of the cooking process.